Genomic imprinting and maternal effect genes in haplodiploid sex determination

L. van de Zande*, E. C. Verhulst

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The research into the Drosophila melanogaster sex-determining system has been at the basis of all further research on insect sex determination. This further research has made it clear that, for most insect species, the presence of sufficient functional Transformer (TRA) protein in the early embryonic stage is essential for female sexual development. In Hymenoptera, functional analysis of sex determination by knockdown studies of sex-determining genes has only been performed for 2 species. The first is the social insect species Apis mellifera, the honeybee, which has single-locus complementary sex determination (CSD). The other species is the parasitoid Nasonia vitripennis, the jewel wasp. Nasonia has a non-CSD sex-determining system, described as the maternal effect genomic imprinting sex determination system (MEGISD). Here, we describe the arguments that eventually led to the formulation of MEGISD and the experimental data that supported and refined this model. We evaluate the possibility that DNA methylation lies at the basis of MEGISD and briefly address the role of genomic imprinting in non-CSD sex determination in other Hymenoptera. (C) 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)74-82
Number of pages9
JournalSexual Development
Volume8
Issue number1-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • doublesex
  • Genomic imprinting
  • Haplodiploidy
  • Maternal effect
  • Nasonia
  • Sex determination
  • transformer
  • WASP NASONIA-VITRIPENNIS
  • TRANSFORMER GENE
  • DETERMINATION PATHWAY
  • CERATITIS-CAPITATA
  • DNA METHYLATION
  • HYMENOPTERA
  • EVOLUTION
  • DROSOPHILA
  • INSECTS
  • CHALCIDOIDEA

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